Tournament Report: A Flattie Three

On June 28th I entered the USA-ASCE Inshore-fishing tournament. Having placed in two inshore tournaments two weeks prior I felt I would be able to carry on that momentum. I found out about the tournament the day before I was to fish it so I didn’t have a lot of time to plan. I decided to once again go strictly for redfish since I had been catching some larger slot reds. I quickly rigged up my gear and hit the sack for a few hours of sleep.

At 3 a.m. I awoke and hit the road heading to the water. I was allowed to start fishing at 3:30 a.m. For this tournament. I reached the weigh-in area and signed in and headed to an area I had been doing well at. I was able to have my kayak and gear unloaded and in the water by 5 a.m. I slowly paddled along a grassy bank looking and listening for redfish crashing on bait. Not finding any signs of redfish along the bank I headed to a small creek that held reds. It didn’t take long for me to hook up on a redfish once I got to the creek. After a quick fight with some good strong runs I had a 4-pound red in the yak. I wasn’t sure if he would place but at least I had one already. 3 cast later I hooked up on a small flounder. I decided to keep the flounder knowing that small flounder had placed in the last few inshore tournaments. I ended up catching a few more flounder as the day went on. I’m not known for my flounder catching abilities so it was a pleasant surprise to catch some. I also ended up with some speckled trout so I was able to complete an inshore slam as well.

After a long day in the sun I decided to head back to the truck. The bite had really slowed down as well so I set off on my paddle back in. I fished my way back in and did manage to lose a very nice redfish right at the kayak as I was reaching for my net. Oh well sometimes they get away, just part of fishing. I made it to the truck and loaded up and headed to the weigh-in. I wasn’t feeling good about my chances with 2 small fish. Once I got to the weigh-in I realized that no flounder had been weighed. Maybe my little flattie would have a chance. My redfish weighed in at 4.2 pounds. Not making in on the board. My flounder weighed in at a small 1.57 pounds. Now it was time to play the waiting game.

Well as the scales closed my flattie held on for a third place finish. My red wasn’t far from making the board as the third place red was only 4.33 pounds. Guess it had been a tough day for everyone. Factoring in my third place finish in the flounder category and also catching an inshore slam it was another great day on the water. Once again I was able to go head to head with boats while fishing from my Feelfree Lure 11.5. Making it 3 tournaments in the last 2 weeks and placing in all 3. Now time to look Forward to the 3 day Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo starting on July 18. 4 tournament places in a row? We shall see.